Drone photos reveal the extent of Bakhmut’s destruction

BAKHMUTH, Ukraine (AP) — Amid the smoldering ruins, a lone dog wanders through the snow, likely oblivious — or perhaps too hungry to be aware otherwise — of death raining down on the rubble of this city Ukrainian that Russia is reducing to rubble.

But for now, Bakhmut stands tall, a symbol of Ukrainian resistance that grows every day as its defenders come under relentless bombardment and waves of Russian troops suffer heavy casualties in a futile months-long campaign to take it.

New video of Bakhmut filmed from the air by drone for The Associated Press reveals how the longest battle of the Russian invasion turned this salt and gypsum mining town in eastern Ukraine into a ghost town , with its austere ruins, a symbol of the madness of war.

In the video filmed on February 13, no people appear. But there they are, hiding in basements and defensive buildings, trying to survive. Of the pre-war population of 80,000, a few thousand either were unwilling or unable to evacuate. The size of the garrison that Ukraine maintains in the city is a secret.

Tire and footprints on the snowy roads reveal the human presence. A scene shows a car driving away. Sentences painted on the outside walls of a destroyed store show that there are or were people here.

“Bajmut loves Ukraine,” reads a caption next to the figure of Valerii Zaluzhnyi, Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, who raises two fingers in the V for victory. “God and Valerii Zaluzhnyi are with us,” reads a caption below the figure.

From the air, the scale of the destruction is clearly visible. Whole rows of apartment buildings are gutted, only the exterior walls standing, roofs and floors gone, leaving the interior of the ruins exposed to snow and winter frost…and the spying eye of the drone.

Like a caver descending into a crevasse, the drone slowly enters one of the empty hulks, whose four floors have collapsed into a heap of ash, rubble and rusty metal.

Another five-story building is missing a big chunk. A black crow enters through the crack. The drone watches a kitchen, once an intimate home environment, with an exterior wall ripped out of it. There is a colander in the sink and dishes to dry, as if someone lives there. But the layer of snow on the tablecloth is an indication that they are long gone,